Tag Archives: Statistics

The 2011 Formula 1 season got underway yesterday, which brought the inaugral podium for a Russian driver. More stats and facts from last weekend:

Sebastian Vettel took his 3rd Grand Prix victory in a row, taking into account last year’s Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix. If he had won the 2010 Korean race, he would have had 5 wins in a row, which would have earned him joint 4th place in the record books.

Red Bull’s 16th race win means they have as many as Cooper, and one less than BRM. This also means that the team have won 14% of all races they have entered since 2005.

This is the 94th time Jenson Button has finished in the points – exactly as many as Kimi Raikkonen.

This is the 19th Formula 1 season that Rubens Barrichello has started. Graham Hill, the previous record holder, had started 18.

Vettel’s pole position lap of 1.23.529 was the fastest lap ever around the Albert Park circuit.

Felipe Massa’s 13th fastest lap – his first since Monaco 2009 – has given him as many as Jacky Ickx, Alan Jones and Ricardo Patrese.

Sergio Perez would have been the 70th driver in history to score a point in his first race, but that record has been transferred to Paul di Resta after both Saubers were disqualified.

Mark Webber’s torrid form in Australia continues. His highest finish continues to be the 5th place he attained in 2002, when he was driving a Minardi.

Hispania’s drivers have been the first drivers to not qualify for the race since Alex Yoong (Minardi) in Germany 2002.

Lewis Hamilton’s 72nd race means he now holds joint 1st place for “Longest F1 career driving for a single team” with Jim Clark.

Vettel’s 11th win puts him equal with Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve. His 16th pole position is as many as Kimi Raikkonen and Stirling Moss.

This race had 5 world champions competing together, which is as many as back in 1970. Back then, Jac Brabham, Denny Hulme, John Surtees, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart all raced with world titles.

Australia hosts the F1 season opener for the 14th time in 2011.

Pirelli’s last win in F1 was back in 1991 in Canada, when Nelson Piquet won with a Benetton.

The 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix saw the newest addition to the pole position club, as well as a return to form for Williams. Here are the stats and facts from Interlagos:

Red Bull are the first constructor outside of Italy, France or Britain to take the constructor's title

First things first, Nico Hulkenberg became Formula 1’s 94th driver to take pole position (103rd if you include the Indy 500). He is also the 6th youngest person to do so.

Red Bull took their first ever constructor’s championship, and they are the first team outside of the Big Three (Italy, France, Britain) to do this. It was also their 14th win.

Sebastian Vettel took his 9th career victory, as many as Jenson Button. It was the 21st time he has started from the front row in 61 race starts, a 34.42% rate.

Williams took their first pole position since Nick Heidfeld back in 2005, although it was still their 126th.

Lewis Hamilton got the fastest lap, and with 6 he has as many as title rivals Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

The last time a Cosworth engine took pole was with Rubens Barrichello at France in 1999. Not since the 1983 Brazilian GP though has a Williams – Cosworth taken pole.

This may not seem like an odd achievement, but it is the first time since 1963 that the constructor’s title has been won by two different teams 2 years in a row.

Red Bull now have 8 1-2 finishes, as many as Tyrrell, Lotus, and Brabham.

Once again, the leader of the driver’s championship failed to win the race, continuing the record from the 2009 Turkish GP.

The all-time record for most classified finishes in one race was levelled yesterday, as 22 cars were classified. This equals the record from the the 1952 British Grand Prix (though drivers didn’t need to get within 90% of race distance to be classified back then. If the 90% rule was to be implemented into that race, then the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix would be a record breaker in that respect.)

This is the first time in Formula 1 history that 4 drivers have entered the final race with a chance of becoming champion.

The front row of the grid was the youngest ever, with an average age of 23 years and 104 days.

The last 2 Brazilian Grands Prix have seen the polesitter fall to 8th in the race.

The Korean Grand Prix was a fantastic race to watch, although the suspension of the start resulted in it being the longest Formula 1 race since 1960. Read on for more Korean GP stats and facts:

Fernando Alonso took his 26th Grand Prix victory this weekend, 1 more than Jim Clark and 1 less than Jackie Stewart. It was also his 18th fastest lap (and his 5th of 2010), putting him equal with David Coulthard. He took his 62nd podium, as many as Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen.

Amazingly, the Korean GP continues the 2010 tradition of not a single win from a driver which was leading the championship at that time. The last time the championship leader won a race was Jenson Button in Turkey in 2009.

Sebastian Vettel took his 14th pole position, and the 9th of the season. He now has the same amount as Rubens Barrichello, James Hunt, Ronnie Peterson and Alberto Ascari.

On the other hand, it is the 7th time this season he has failed to win from pole position, and the 11th in total for Red Bull (out of only 17 races). If one Red Bull driver took pole position and the other won, this figure is reduced to 8.

Out of the top 4 teams, Red Bull has become the first to have a double retirement this year.

This was Ferrari’s 810th race entry, and their 215th race win. Massa’s and Alonso’s podiums mean their podium total is 470.

Michael Schumacher’s 4th position was the best of the year so far, and the 201st time he has finished in the points.

Unbelievably, last Sunday was exactly 7,000 days since he made his F1 debut in Spa in 1991.

Here’s an odd one – Some of Fernando Alonso’s career statistics now perfectly match up with Kimi Raikkonen’s: 157 race appearances, 155 race starts, resulting in 62 podiums.

Jenson Button’s 12th place is his worst race finish since Brazil 2008.

With Red Bull’s double retirement, only McLaren have scored points in every race this year.

However, the Indy 500 of 1960 was not run to F1 regulations, so to find an official F1 race longer than last week’s one, you would have to go back to the 1960 Monaco GP, which took 2 hours, 53 mins, 45.5 seconds.

If you can spot any other interesting stats, let me know in the comments.

Fernando Alonso scored his second hat-trick result at Monza in 4 years, while scoring the team’s first pole position in nearly 2 years. Here are the stats and facts from the Italian Grand Prix:

This is Fernando Alonso’s 24th race win of his career. He now has as many as Juan Manuel Fangio, one more than Nelson Piquet, and one less than Niki Lauda and Jim Clark.

He now has 19 pole positions, 1 more than Lewis Hamilton, Mario Andretti and Rene Arnoux, and one less than Damon Hill.

This was Ferrari’s 213th race win. However, it was their first pole position since Brazil 2008, when Felipe Massa was in the front spot.

Fernando Alonso has now led at least 1 lap of 58 different races, which is as many as Nelson Piquet, 3 more than Kimi Raikkonen and Nigel Mansell, but 4 less than David Coulthard.

Also, it was his second hat-trick (pole, win, and fastest lap) at Monza since 2007. He has 4 in total, as many as Felipe Massa, Jacky Ickx, Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart.

He also got his 16th fastest lap, 1 less than Rubens Barrichello.

The last time that a Ferrari driver scored pole position in his first appearance for the team at Monza was back in 1974, with Niki Lauda. However, it is the first time in Formula 1 history that a Ferrari driver, in his first appearance at Monza for Ferrari, has scored both the pole position and the win.

This was the first time since the 2009 Italian GP that a Red Bull was not on the front row. Also, 6th place was Sebastian Vettel’s worst qualifying performance so far this year.

This is the 20th race in a row that Red Bull have scored points, a record which has been going on since the 2009 European Grand Prix.

This was Jenson Button’s first front-row start for McLaren.

Bruno Senna had his 8th retirement of the year, 1 more than Pedro de la Rosa. 7 of these have been mechanical, another record for this season.

This was the 12th time in 13 races that Red Bull have taken a pole position, but the 6th time this season that they have lost a race win from pole.

Also, this was the first time this year that a Red Bull car was classified outside of the points.

This was the first time in 2010 that a Ferrari retired from the race. Having said that, the Ferraris still lead the “laps completed” section, with Massa in the lead with 780 laps, and Alonso second with 772. No other driver has come close to this.

Jaime Alguersuari got his career best 11th place position qualification, while Michael Schumacher’s 21st place grid spot was the second-worst in his career.

Lewis Hamilton has turned every single one of his front-row starts this year to victories.

Robert Kubica’s 3rd podium finishes this year means he has as many as Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa.

Bruno Senna’s 7th retirement of the season means he is level at the top with Pedro de la Rosa. Having said that, Hispania’s 18th and 19th position grid spots were the best of the season.

The Hungarian Grand Prix was Red Bull’s 100th Formula 1 start, and they celebrated it well with a pole position, race win, and taking the lead in both championships. Here are some more stats and facts from the Hungarian Grand Prix:

This was the 6th time this year that Red Bull have had a front row lockout in qualifying, but they have only turned one of these lockouts into a 1-2 finish, at Malaysia.

With Vitaly Petrov out-qualifying Robert Kubica, no driver has out-qualified their team-mate in every race now.

This was Sebastian Vettel’s 4th pole position in a row, and the 7th this season. He now has 12 overall, as many as Gerhard Berger and David Coulthard.

This was Mark Webber’s 6th career victory, putting him level with many drivers such as Ralf Schumacher, Ricardo Patrese, Gilles Villeneuve, and Jochen Rindt. He has only 1 less than Sebastian Vettel.

Once you look behind the headlines, you can find the fact that this is Williams 100th race since their last win. Here are more stats and facts from the German Grand Prix:

Fernando Alonso’s win means that he is now in the top 10 of Grand Prix winning drivers, with 23 to his name, as many as Nelson Piquet Sr. On the other hand, if Massa had won, then he would have had 12 wins, 1 less than Lewis Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel’s 5th fastest lap of his career means he has as many as Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.

Also, Vettel’s 11th pole position means he is in 30th place overall.

This is only the second time this year that Red Bull have not led a lap in a Grand Prix. The other time was in China, when Sebastian Vettel again lost his lead at the start, although Fernando Alonso jump started into the lead.

This was the 3rd pole position in a row for Vettel, although he has bottled the last 2 in a row at the first corner.

The qualifying gap to Alonso (0.002 seconds) was the smallest pole position margin since the Italian GP in 2006, when Kimi Raikkonen took pole.

This is Williams’ 100th race entry since their last win. However, taking Indianapolis 2005 into account, they have actually only competed in 99 races since their last win.

Robert Kubica has now out-qualified his team-mate 11 times in a row this year (every race), the only driver to do so.

Felipe Massa has completed the most laps, with 666. 3 drivers are one lap behind on 665 (Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso) as they retired with one lap to go.

I could be wrong, but I think it is the first ever time in Formula 1 history that 3 different teams have scored 2 1-2 victories in a single season.

Many people are claiming that Nico Hulkenberg’s pit stop was 2.9 seconds, and therefore the fastest pit stop in F1 history. Unfortunately, I had a look at the replays, and there was a huge timing error, as the stop was actually around 4.5 seconds.

Not exactly a historical stat, but I’m guessing it’s the first time that a driver tried to adjust his brake bias, and hit the engine fire switch instead, cutting out the engine and forcing him into retirement. Three cheers for Sakon Yamamoto!

The British Grand Prix was Mark Webber’s 5th win of his career, and the 11th for Red Bull. Here are the stats and facts from the British Grand Prix:

This was Sebastian Vettel’s 10th pole positions of his career, which is as much as Jochen Rindt.

Mark Webber’s 5th career win puts him level with Michele Alboreto, Keke Rosberg, John Watson, Clay Regazzoni and Nino Farina. It was also his 150th Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso took the 15th fastest lap of his career, putting him in 16th place overall. He now has as many as Clay Regazzoni and Jackie Stewart.

This was Red Bull’s 11th constructors’ win, putting them 1 ahead of Alfa Romeo, but well behind Cooper (16).

Ferrari’s 14th and 15th places were the worst for the team since the 1978 French Grand Prix, when Gilles Villeneuve and Carlos Reutemann finished 12th and 18th respectively.

In the lead-up to this race, there were rumours that the average lap speed record, currently held at Monza, could be broken. However, because the track turned out to be 10 metres shorter than planned, the average lap speed was actually higher than last year, leaving it 3rd overall in tracks with highest lap speed, behind Monza and Spa. The pole position speed in Silverstone this year was set by Sebastian Vettel, and it was 236.52kph, compared to 236.92kph last year.

Robert Kubica retired yesterday, meaning that no driver has completed every single lap this year now. However, Kubica is now the only driver to have out-qualified his team-mate in every race so far.

Red Bull have now led 433 of the 600 laps this year.

Mark Webber has become the first driver this year to score 3 wins.

Red Bull topped every single session this weekend, meaning Friday Practice 1 and 2, Saturday Morning practice (aka FP3), qualifying, and led every single lap of the race. Unfortunately there is no record of whether this has happened before in Formula 1 history.

This is the first ever time that Red Bull have won twice at any track.

Every single time that an Australian has won the British Grand Prix, they have gone on to win the world championship that year. This has happened in 1959, 1960, 1966 and 1980 previously.

Bernd Maylander has now been deployed in the safety car 100 times, since he was hired in 2000. He deserves a present, surely Mercedes could afford him a road-legal SLS?